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Development of Molybdenum Phosphide Catalysts for Higher Alcohol Synthesis from Syngas by Exploiting Support and Promoter Effects
Author(s) -
ten Have Iris C.,
Valle Eduardo,
Gallo Alessandro,
Snider Jonathan L.,
Duyar Melis S.,
Jaramillo Thomas F.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.201801102
Subject(s) - catalysis , phosphide , molybdenum , syngas , selectivity , x ray absorption spectroscopy , mesoporous material , chemistry , palladium , inorganic chemistry , methanol , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , materials science , absorption spectroscopy , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) catalysts have recently attracted attention due to their robust methanol synthesis activity from CO/CO 2 . Synthesis strategies are used to steer MoP selectivity toward higher alcohols by investigating the promotion effects of alkali (K) and CO‐dissociating (Co, Ni) and non‐CO‐dissociating (Pd) metals. A systematic study with transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) showed that critical parameters governing the activity of MoP catalysts are P/Mo ratio and K loading, both facilitating MoP formation. The kinetic studies of mesoporous silica‐supported MoP catalysts show a twofold role of K, which also acts as an electronic promoter by increasing the total alcohol selectivity and chain length. Palladium (Pd) increases CO conversion, but decreases alcohol chain length. The use of mesoporous carbon (MC) support has the most significant effect on catalyst performance and yields a KMoP/MC catalyst that ranks among the state‐of‐the‐art in terms of selectivity to higher alcohols.